...it’ll mean letting someone like Mitt Romney step in and get credit for the good stuff that happens after we’ve been through all this crap."...
More mishmash under the cut.
Few highlights from Jonathan Alter' new book: Book Report: ‘The Promise: President Obama, Year One’
...It’s a sometimes-gushing account of what, in Alter’s view, puts Obama "in the company of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson now in terms of domestic achievement, a figure of history for reasons far beyond the color of his skin."
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Obama’s Own Words: Leaving a small, dark holding area to walk out to deliver his inauguration address, Obama tells Alter that he felt as if he was about to be "shot out of a canon." A year later, he says, "I don’t think people fully appreciated the degree to which, prior to health care, we had twelve straight victories in a row... these are pieces of legislation that in any normal year would be considered huge accomplishments." Around Thanksgiving 2009, he tells an old friend: "Who would really want this job for more than one term? But I have to run now, otherwise it’ll mean letting someone like Mitt Romney step in and get credit for the good stuff that happens after we’ve been through all this crap."...
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...What Obama Is Like: Obama’s senior staff, Alter writes, offers a rough comparison to his basketball skills: A good finisher but avoids practice. Alter concludes, "As president he routinely rewrote speeches at the last minute, skipped rehearsal, and assumed the best. With the game on the line, he hit the three-pointer with nothing but net. His aides had faith he would, but worried still; even Michael Jordan missed sometimes"...
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....The Health Care Story: Obama was the only person to really push for an ambitious reform plan in the first year of his presidency, Alter reports. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel pushed for a less sweeping plan, which one strategist called the "Titanic approach... women and children first." Vice President Joe Biden counseled, "they’ll give you a pass on this one." Senior Adviser David Axelrod said voters were more worried about energy. Romer recommended waiting until the economy improved. When poll numbers in September 2009 suggested that voters still weren’t on board, Emanuel asked his boss if he was feeling lucky. "My name is Barack Hussein Obama and I’m sitting here," the president said. "So yeah, I’m feeling pretty lucky."
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From The NYT review of that book:
....But Mr. Alter soon finds his voice, using his considerable access to the president and his aides to give us an informed look at No. 44’s management style — his methodical approach to policy making, which favors "logic chains" and "decision trees," and which stands in nearly direct opposition to George W. Bush’s gut calls and distaste for process.
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...Cool, calm and collected, the president is described as a sort of cerebral Zen master: unflappable, "psychologically healthy" and something of a control freak who is reluctant to delegate ("one of his agency heads said that on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being obsessive control, the president was an 8 or 9")...
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....As Mr. Alter recounts it, Mr. Obama told his aides that "in a quiet moment on Election Night he had asked himself, ‘What’s the single achievement that would most help average Americans?’ " and that his answer "was health care reform, though he hadn’t emphasized it during the campaign." As president, Mr. Alter goes on, Mr. Obama pressed on "because for greatness he needed health care" and "because he was genuinely convinced that the status quo was financially unsustainable" given rising health care costs.
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A long and highly recommended NYT story:
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With Obama, Regulations Are Back in Fashion
WASHINGTON — In a burst of rule-making, federal agencies have toughened or proposed new standards to protect Americans from tainted eggs, safeguard construction workers from crane accidents, prevent injuries from baby walkers and even protect polar bears from extinction.
Over the last year, the Obama administration has pressed forward on hundreds of new mandates, while also stepping up enforcement of rules by increasing the ranks of inspectors and imposing higher fines for violations.
...A new age of regulation is well under way in Washington, a fact somewhat obscured by the high-profile debates over the health care overhaul and financial oversight system and by fresh calls for greater federal vigilance spurred by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the deaths of coal miners in West Virginia.
The surge in rule-making has resulted from an unusual confluence of factors, from repeated outbreaks of food-borne illnesses to workplace disasters. Some industry groups, wanting foreign competitors to adhere to the same standards they must meet, have backed new federal mandates.
....Still, the new aggressiveness reflects the new cops on the beat, and the contrast with the Bush administration is an intentionally sharp one. While the Bush administration mostly favored voluntary compliance by industry, senior Obama administration officials argue that carefully crafted regulation can be a positive force...
Steve Benen linked to this fascinating article by John Judis from a couple of months back, titled "The Quiet Revolution" and with the bottom line:
"Obama's regulatory appointments could not be more different" from those we've seen in recent years, and the flow of expertise into the federal bureaucracy over the past year has been reminiscent of what took place at the start of the New Deal."
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Medicare Fraud Enforcement Efforts Recovered $2.5 Billion In 2009
WASHINGTON — The government says it recovered $2.5 billion in overpayments for the Medicare trust fund last year as the Obama administration focused attention on fraud enforcement efforts in the health care industry...
...The newly enacted Affordable Care Act is designed to lengthen prison sentences in criminal cases and the new law provides an additional $300 million over the next 10 years for stronger enforcement. It also gives the government new authority to step up oversight of companies participating in Medicare and Medicaid.
...To combat fraud, the act allows Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to bar providers from joining the programs and allows her to withhold payment to Medicare or Medicaid providers if an investigation is pending.
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New claims for unemployment insurance inch down
WASHINGTON – New claims for unemployment benefits dipped for the fourth straight week, a sign the job market is improving at a slow but steady pace.
...The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims dropped last week by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 444,000. That's slightly above analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters. The previous week's total was revised up to 448,000.
The four-week average, which smooths out volatility, registered a steeper decline. It fell by 9,000 to 450,500 — close to the average's lowest level this year reached in late March.
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Yep, someone noticed:
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not only the first African-American in the Oval Office, but the first president raised on feminist principles
Someday, when Americans have learned to live the true meaning of our creed, a Supreme Court nomination of a woman, a Latino, an African-American or any other variety of human being—including a gay man or woman—will provoke no comment or concern. Until then, we should applaud every step toward that future. The latest is President Barack Obama’s choice of Elena Kagan to become the third female justice among the nine justices on the nation’s highest court.
Beyond the inevitable and proper inquiries about the character and views of his latest nominee, Mr. Obama’s decision tells us something important about him, too. This nomination reminds us is that he is not only the first African-American in the Oval Office, but the first president raised on feminist principles as well...
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...Remember that his mother, Ann, though unlucky in marriage, was deeply persistent, adventurous and professional in her career as an anthropologist. This "girl from Kansas" brought her children with her to distant lands, and even left teenage Barry with his grandparents for a time while she worked abroad. Recall also that his beloved grandmother Madelyn Dunham, whom he knew as "Toot," was a working woman who rose daily before dawn to arrive at the bank where she toiled for more than 20 years until, at long last, she won promotion to vice president. Owing to her gender, her advancement came far more slowly than she deserved—and the fact that she earned more than her husband was often a source of friction at home.
Today there is nothing unusual about a bank vice president—or a peripatetic academic—who happens to be female. Back when Mr. Obama was growing up, however, those two brave women shaped his outlook profoundly. We cannot yet know how three female justices will change the culture of the court and the jurisprudence of the nation. But the dream that Ms. Kagan cherished and pursued just became a little easier for other girls to imagine.
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President Obama traveling to Buffalo, N.Y., and touring the facilities of Industrial Support inc., earlier today:
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The entire town hall is here.
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All by AP.
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New York Times reporter Sheryl Stolberg use a hovercraft developed by Industrial Support Inc., in Buffalo.
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The president at Duff's Famous Wings in Buffalo:
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President Obama waves to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan upon his departure on the South Lawn Drive of the White House, May 12, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Undated handout school photo made available by former pupil Sonni Gondokusumo on May 12, 2010 shows pupils of the Menteng One Elementary school of Jakarta, including President Obama.